Top cybersecurity stories of 2024

The advent of the largest IT outage in history caused the technology of numerous industries to topple like dominoes as they lost the use of their computers and other critical tools. Airplanes were grounded, passengers were stranded, courts were closed, hospitals performed only necessary surgeries and even some news organizations had to improvise to stay on the air

The impetus behind the collapse was a software update that cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike released for its Falcon platform to various Windows systems. The update triggered an error, crashing the Microsoft Windows systems and affecting an estimated 8.5 million devices. However, it did not affect Linux or MacOS systems.

Major IT outage will challenge insurance coverages Part One
Major IT outage will challenge insurance coverages Part Two

While Gen AI can boost cyber criminals' ability to steal identification data to commit fraud, insurers can use the same Gen AI technology to fight back, industry professionals and experts say.

Cybersecurity coverage issues including responsibility for losses and the cost of coverage for small businesses, are raising questions as to whether cybersecurity insurance should be related to or governed by public policy.

Daniel Woods, a cyber security lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and author of Lawfare's May research paper "Software Liability and Insurance," thinks it's unlikely that policymakers will step in on cybersecurity insurance subrogation, but says they should start considering security software makers' liability.